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Introduction

Hello, thank you for joining me along my journey of becoming a Runner! I've always been an active guy, played sports in high school and continued into adult recreation sports after high school. As I started my family and found a career, the activity level slowly decreased. Well my Fiance had enough of our lazy ways and started on the Weight Watchers program and completely overhauled our daily meals. Step 2 was getting more active, so we decided to JOG our annual Juvenile Diabetes charity walk and actually enjoyed the activity. The month following the charity walk, we signed up for our first official 5K and had an absolute blast. From that point forward I have officially been BIT by the running bug and this is my journey to becoming a RUNNER!

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Need Some Rest Please

We have made it to Thursday!!

Let’s just open this post up with some in your face truth. I took Wednesday off from running and it looks like I may be taking today off running as well.

100% honesty…I’m just needing some rest days lol. I didn't even put pictures in this post lol.

A round about monthly review to give some background. One of the many running groups I follow on Facebook was doing a mileage challenge through the month of December. I ran my first 50k in December then took a couple weeks off so being a part of a mileage challenge wasn’t going to happen. Come January, a group of us wanted to get over the holiday hangover and start the new year off right. So we started the Resolution Rundred and pledged to run a ## of miles throughout the month of January. My goal…200 miles!!

I am going to breakdown the month of November by grade in a few different categories:

Races

Grade – A+

Only race I had was the Rock N Roll Half Marathon. Well I went out and shattered by PR coming in at 1:35. This was one of those defining races for me and I’m really happy with this performance. Double edged sword, great performance that has led to internal discussions about a BQ again. So we will see where things lead.

Effort

Grade – A-

Overall my effort for the month was excellent. I was engaged, looking forward to my runs, and had very few runs where I had to alter the workout or change the effort. I can honestly say it wasn’t until the 31st, the last day of the month, that I finally started to run out of steam. More on that later.

Injuries

Grade – A+

No injuries to report so that is always an excellent way to kick off the year. Although fatigued most of the time, legs feel great.

Strength Training

Grade – B

I started strength training in December. For those that are new around here, I HATE HATE HATE strength training lol. BUT, I am susceptible to cramping in my hamstrings at longer distances and I really think that is due to weak hamstrings. Based on the goal that I’ve set for this year, I am focusing on improving my weaknesses, so strength training is a big step. I planned strength training for Mon, Wed, & Fri and for the most part I was pretty consistent with 2 days a week. Hey that’s a start!!

Elevation Gain

Grade – A+

As a trail runner, elevation gain is extremely important to training. Additionally, I enjoy the heck out of climbing mountains lol. I ended up with roughly 22,000 feet of elevation gain for the month and averaged about 4000 feet of climbing each week. Looking at last year, the highest I had in one month was around 21,000 feet of climbing so this was an excellent way to start off the year. On a training note, climbing is my weak point so continuing with my goal for the year, I’m trying to improve on my weaknesses.

Mileage

Grade – B+

I really struggled with grading here. I could have made a goal that was easily obtainable, a goal that didn’t require some real effort. I just don’t roll that way lol. Flat out, my goal for January was 200 miles and I ended up with 193 miles. Don’t get me wrong, 193 miles is a great month and a very quality effort…BUT…the goal was 200 miles!! So if I’m properly evaluating, I didn’t quite meet my goal. If I’m going to keep improving and keep focusing on my weaknesses, I need to be hard on myself. So a B+ is what it is and I need to try a bit harder in February

Overall

Grade – A-

Taking the mathematical average, this was my overall grade. I am more than happy with the way that January unfolded. I had plenty of accomplishments to be happy about and more importantly, some key items that I need to keep working on moving forward.

Now back to my impromptu rest days yesterday and today. That was a big month with a lot of miles and elevation which also included the addition of leg workouts. My legs needed some rest lol. Only thing on the schedule is pacing my coach at his 100K in a couple weeks and that will only be about 15 miles. I think I can afford to take a couple days off before hitting it hard again.

Do you grade your months by category? Or do you grade it overall?

Should we start a blogger challenge for miles in February?? We have to hold each other accountable right??